Ring or Go Naked?

Last week, while at a bar, I ran into a couple of lovely young ladies.  So young that I’m probably not even on their radar.  Anyway, on the drive back to the office afterwards, staring at the ring around my finger, I began to wonder if it would be best if I was ringless when in out in public where I might meet people.

I’m not trying to trick anyone – make them think I’m available for a long term relationship.  But it seems to me that sometimes it’s easier to get to know someone without the ring, well, getting in the way.

I never wear the ring when I work out.  I have a titanium wedding band.  It is a dark silver metal that goes better with my skin tone than gold, and I thought it was unconventional (in a good way) back when we got married.  But there’s a problem with a titanium ring. 

If you injure your ring finger while wearing a wedding band, and the finger begins to swell, the swelling will squeeze the blood vessels going to and from the finger, cutting off the blood supply.  This will eventually kill the finger and gangrene will set in.  To prevent this, your emergency room doctor will remove the ring for you.  If you have a gold or silver ring, the doc will get out some tin snips and off it comes.  Your jeweler solders it back together, good as new.  But if you have a titanium ring, there aren’t any tin snips that can cut it.  You need an acetylene torch for that.  While it can cut the ring, your finger will pretty much be toast –and I mean really toast.  The only solution that exists today is to cut off the finger, remove the ring, and try to reattach the finger.  Ow.  And that re-attachment thingy doesn’t really work all that well. 

Anyway, this is what I was told by my jeweler when I bought it.  Turns out, when I asked my doctor, he said that they can cut off a titanium band, it’s hard, but they can do it.  He told me that this is a story perpetuated by jewelers to sell the more expensive gold and silver bands.

But the wife heard the jeweler say “no working on the car, gardening, or sports with the ring on”.  As a result, I have no tan line where the ring goes.  And I can slide it on and off easily.  It helps that I haven’t gained too much weight since the wedding.